The Flight
by Alynna Peta
Summary: Pearl and Amethyst take a flight to Munich, Germany to visit family and friends. AU.


The redhead parked her car in excitement. She was only two hours away from taking her flight, the one she had planned for the last three months, to see her former guardian. The now twenty year old had not been able to visit since she started university two year ago. Something would always come up, between her school, job, and ice-skating practice; she missed her home and all of her friends. Pearl hastily grabbed the two suitcases she had from her trunk and hurried into the airport. She found her airline, grabbed her ticket, and made her way to the terminal. The young woman was bouncing around from she excitement.

The wait was agonizing, but she found ways to distract herself. She'd packed some of her favorite novels and her laptop so that she could do some research for her term paper over the break. After reading through a quarter of _The Innocent_ by David Baldacci, her plane finally allowed the passengers to board it. She rocked from one leg to the other repeatedly while listening for her section to be announced. Then boarded the plane and found her seat. It seemed that she would only be seated next to one other person as the flight filled but no one claimed the seat in the middle. Pearl sat by the aisle on the right side of the plane, and next to the window was a shorter girl with long hair so blond that it looked white from her angle. The other girl was staring out of the window at the runway appearing bored. Pearl was ok with this arrangement since no one would be directly in her comfort zone. She didn't like people being too close to her for too long.

The captain made the announcement for the passengers to buckle up and remain seated, and the flight was on its way.

 _Hour One_

Pearl settled back into her seat after getting up to grab her book. She wanted to at least finish this novel before landing. The plane would touch down in Munich, Germany in almost ten hours so she had plenty of time to read through one of her books she brought along. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shorter girl reach into her pocket and pull out a cellphone with earplugs. The girl then put them in her ears and began listening to whatever it was that she had on her phone. Pearl focused back on her book. The slender girl didn't get too far before she was distracted by the other passenger. The other girl had begun to sing along to whatever song she was listening to. Though she did have a nice voice and could carry a tune, Pearl didn't like being distracted so quickly with so much time left on the flight.

Pearl reached towards the other passenger and tapped on her shoulder a few times. The girl looked to her and removed her left earphone. "What do ya want?"

"Could you possibly sing at a lower volume? I'm trying to read but your voice keeps distracting me."

"Sure thing, I guess. Sorry."

The blond reinserted her earphone and hummed along to the tune that was playing. Pearl, satisfied at the outcome, invested herself back in the story taking place in her hands.

 _Hour Two_

The girl had stopped humming minutes ago and instead swung her feet back and forward in front of herself. The she stopped that as well and looked to the seat in between them. "Hey, um…"

Pearl turned her head at the voice and the other girl continued, "Do ya mind if I put my feet up here?"

Pearl thought about if for a second then shrugged. As long as the other girl didn't touch her, she didn't see the harm in letting her make herself comfortable. "Sure."

"Thanks. The name's Amethyst."

"I'm Pearl."

The two went back to sitting in comfortable silence. Amethyst drifted off while Pearl once again went back to her book. Like she had hoped, Amethyst didn't get too close to her so she didn't have to worry about any personal space issues. The only person she ever allowed to invade her personal space without invitation was her guardian so she was glad that there would be no conflict between herself and this girl named Amethyst.

 _Hour Three_

Amethyst snores. Pearl doesn't know why this bothers her. No, actually, she does. She is completely aware of why Amethyst's snoring bothers her. It's loud, has no rhythm, and is completely annoying. But even though the other girl's snoring bothers her, it is no reason to wake her up. Pearl would just have to ignore it.

 _Hour Four_

Thankfully Amethyst woke up. Pearl wasn't sure how long her patience would hold out. She turned her legs to the side to let Amethyst out. The girl mumbled something about using the restroom before she left. She left her phone on her seat though. Pearl wasn't an intrusive person majority of the time, but being cooped up in this plane was doing things to her decision making process. She just wanted to know what kind of music the other passenger listened to. At least, that was what she told herself as she pressed on the home button to activate the home screen. The picture that presented itself was of Amethyst and a bright, auburn colored cat. Amethyst had a wide smile on her face as she held the phone up for the picture. Pearl thought that her cat was simply adorable with how plump it was and the cute expression it had. Looking towards the top of the screen, Pearl saw the title of the song dance across the notification bar. Amethyst was listening to _American Boy_ by Estelle. Not a bad song choice, though it was definitely something Pearl couldn't see herself listening to. She switched the screen back off and pretended to be reading again as Amethyst made her way back to their seat.

"So what's yer book about?"

"Hm," Pearl started, "Well, it starts off with a hitman that has a hit gone wrong. Then when he flees the scene he runs into a teen whose parents were murdered and decides to help her-"

"So this guy messes up killing someone, finds a girl while he's running away, and just decides to help her for no reason?" Amethyst interrupts.

"When you put it like that… But yes, that's generally how the plot starts off."

"That must be one hell of a book. How far have ya gotten in it?"

Pearl glanced at the page her hand was resting on, "I'm on page two hundred eighty-six."

"And you still have that much left to go?" Amethyst huffed, "You must really like to read. I don't think I have the attention span to do that."

"You get used to it the more you do it."

Amethyst snorted in response and started playing on her phone.

 _Hour Five_

"What game are you playing?"

Pearl watched as Amethyst fingers flew across the screen hitting each colored circle perfectly in time with the black bar as it crossed over them. "It's called Cytus. It's a rhythm game, so it's all about music. But get this, it actually has a pretty nice story and gets updated every few months."

"Never heard of it before."

Amethyst paused the track and glanced at Pearl in shock, "Really? You've never seen this before?" Pearl shook her head. "Pearl, it's been around for, like, three years. The people who made this even made another game called Deemo. Heard of that one?"

"Can't say that I have."

Amethyst closed her mouth after her jaw dropped for the second time in the last ten minutes. Then her features were set in grim determination, "Let me fix that then. Would you say you were good at Guitar Hero? I know ya have to at least have tried that before."

"I was pretty decent at it yes, but I don't see how that game relates to what you're playing now. They look nothing the same."

"Just give me a sec," Amethyst responded as she exited out of Cytus, "Cytus is harder to play on phones because of how small the screens are. I'm going to start ya out on Deemo."

"Still doesn't explain what Guitar Hero had to do with any of this…"

"Just trust me, P."

"P?" she asked as she took the phone from the other girl. Amethyst just nodded as the screen fluctuated before showing the image of a little girl among various other things. Amethyst used one plump, tan finger to tap the screen and go to the main menu. "This game is easier compared to what I was playing, but that's only because you don't have to tap all over the place. It's just like Guitar Hero. And it has a story too, but I won't go into too much detail. It's better if ya find out for yourself. Just pick any song you think sounds like something ya want to play. You can go between the "books" by swiping left or right, and choose between songs by dragging your finger up or down. Oh and to change the difficulty, just tap to the left of the song title. You can change the speed after selecting a song. You got all that?"

"I think so…" Pearl answered uncertainly. Keeping what the shorter girl said in mind she tapped on the first book, then the second, then the third, and so on until she made it to the seventeenth book of the game. "oh for the love of… just pick a song already. It really doesn't matter which one."

"Fine, fine. I'll just go with this one," Pearl said pressing _Lune_.

"Um, I know I said that it didn't matter and that Deemo is easy and all, but are you sure ya want to play that on level eight? I mean, that's pretty hard."

"You said it was like Guitar Hero. I played that on expert. How hard can it be?"

 _Hour Six_

"Why! Why can't I get at least a full combo!" Pearl shouted drawing the attention of a few nearby and a hearty laugh from Amethyst.

"Aw, don't be too upset over it! You're doing better than I thought you would. Getting an eighty percent scoring on a level eight song when it's your first time playing is awesome enough."

"I have to get this game. I refuse to get anything but a perfect score. Here's your phone back. I don't want to kill your battery."

Amethyst pocketed her cell and asked Pearl to pass her carryon from the overheard storage. Then she fished out her Ipad and grinned. "Seeing as you like Deemo so much, you probably won't like Cytus. It has more of a dubstep feel than piano tracks."

"I can give it a try anyway if you want. Does it work the same way?"

"Sort of. You can't change the speed, but everything else is pretty much the same," she said as she passed the game over.

 _Hour Seven_

"I can't believe this. How can you play that without your hands cramping up?"

"It's like ya said, P. The more ya do something, ya just get used to it. I've been playing this game since it came out. I'm not the best, but I'm definitely better than you."

"We'll just see about that."

 _Hour Eight_

Amethyst could feel her jaw drop as she watched Pearl finally get a perfect score; on a level nine song at that. "Well, look at you finally getting million master. Good work, P."

 _Hour Nine_

Pearl handed Amethyst's Ipad back and flexed her hands. Her wrists were tired but she was satisfied. No games were going to beat her. Amethyst bowed her head and chuckled. The chuckle turned into a hearty laugh once Pearl demanded to know what was so funny.

"Nothing really, it's just," Amethyst struggled to get out through her laughter, "You're something else, Pearl, ya know that?"

"I just like to win is all. There's nothing wrong with being a winner."

"Oh so you're one of those types of people. I think I get where ya coming from though. Winning does feel great. Especially after ya worked so hard to do something."

Pearl decided to let Amethyst's "one of those types" comment go even though she wanted to know what the other girl meant by that. "Thank you."

"So why are ya headed to Germany?"

"I'm going to visit someone very important to me. She adopted me when I was younger. I don't know where I would be without her."

"Cool. I'm going for something like that, but it's more like seeing some friends I haven't had a chance to hang out with in a few years," Amethyst smiled, "Those two should be at the airport when we get there."

"How long have you been friends with them?"

"For over ten years now. You wouldn't believe it but in the beginning we couldn't stand each other. Ruby was angry at everything, Sapphire always pretended like she knew everything that would happen, and I well… I was just being myself. Then one day out of absolutely nowhere, Ruby and Sapphire just hooked up. I did not see that coming. We had to be fifteen by then. Once they stopped fighting, it was easy for me to hang out with both of them at the same time and we'd been a group ever since. But enough about me, tell me about the lady that adopted you."

"Rose? Well she's really tall, and kind to everyone. You'd like her if you ever met her. She's just a sweetheart."

 _Hour Ten_

The captain made the announcement that the plane would be landing within the next ten minutes so the passengers should remain seated. Pearl moved to put Amethyst's carryon back in the overhead storage compartment and fiddled with her belt buckle before leaning back into her seat. In less than twenty minutes, she would be back with Rose and going home again for the first time in two years.

"Hey, I know we aren't supposed to have our phones on while landing and junk, so after we get off of here and grab our stuff, ya wanna trade numbers? You're pretty cool so I'd like to keep in touch with ya. Maybe we could even hang out sometime."

Pearl smiled at her new friend.

"Yes, I'd like that."

* * *

 ** _This would be my second story within twenty four hours. I wonder if I could put out another..._**

 ** _Anyway, I think this is a good start of things under my new pen name. I recently retired my last original one, AlphaHikari, for something closer to my name and easier to remember._**

 ** _So what do you guys think? Did you like it? Is there anything that I should have done better? Was there anything that you would have like to see included in there interactions? I want to know how you all felt about it, so be sure to tell me in a review._**


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